DREAMS OF JOY: REVIEW AND GIVEAWAY

GIVEAWAY ENDED 
DREAMS OF JOY 

BY LISA SEE

ABOUT THE BOOK:

In her beloved New York Times bestsellers Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Peony in Love, and, most recently, Shanghai Girls, Lisa See has brilliantly illuminated the potent bonds of mother love, romantic love, and love of country. Now, in her most powerful novel yet, she returns to these timeless themes, continuing the story of sisters Pearl and May from Shanghai Girls, and Pearl’s strong-willed nineteen-year-old daughter, Joy.

Reeling from newly uncovered family secrets, and anger at her mother and aunt for keeping them from her, Joy runs away to Shanghai in early 1957 to find her birth father—the artist Z.G. Li, with whom both May and Pearl were once in love. Dazzled by him, and blinded by idealism and defiance, Joy throws herself into the New Society of Red China, heedless of the dangers in the communist regime.

Devastated by Joy’s flight and terrified for her safety, Pearl is determined to save her daughter, no matter the personal cost. From the crowded city to remote villages, Pearl confronts old demons and almost insurmountable challenges as she follows Joy, hoping for reconciliation. Yet even as Joy’s and Pearl’s separate journeys converge, one of the most tragic episodes in China’s history threatens their very lives.

Acclaimed for her richly drawn characters and vivid storytelling, Lisa See once again renders a family challenged by tragedy and time, yet ultimately united by the resilience of love.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Lisa See is the New York Times bestselling author of Peony in Love, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Flower Net (an Edgar Award nominee), The Interior, and Dragon Bones, as well as the critically acclaimed memoir On Gold Mountain. The Organization of Chinese American Women named her the 2001 National Woman of the Year. She lives in Los Angeles.

ABOUT THE VIDEO:
"Beauty and the Book" interviews Lisa on YouTube. In this video which runs about eleven minutes, Lisa gets into talking about both SHANGHAI GIRLS and DREAMS OF JOY as well as some of her research that is fascinating and relates to the books as well. Lisa even cooks a typical recipe in it and has a make over! She ends with a book club asking questions and having a discussion about DREAMS OF JOY. I hope you take time to watch.

GUEST REVIEW:
Lisa See’s DREAMS OF JOY is the sequel to SHANGHAI GIRLS but it does very well as a stand alone book.  Before writing this book, Lisa See was invited to visit Huangcun Village in Anhui Province in China. In the Acknowledgments, you can read more about her inspiration for this book. In Anhui, she heard stories about living in the countryside in the communes during the Great Leap Forward.

The location of the story was changed so See could create Green Dragon, but the stone bridge and temple in the story and gorgeous landscape were of Anhui. This is special to me since I had some family friends who lived in Anhui during the Great Leap Forward. Most people are familiar with the Cultural Revolution but not with the Great Leap Forward which preceded it.  This was Mao’s big experiment. He wanted to surpass Great Britain and later the United States in production of agriculture and manufacturing. To do this, he had 700 million people put into communes in the countryside. Some of the people were delegated to smelting iron instead of farming sapping the workforce. Leaders of the commune were trying to impress Mao and beat the other communes in production so they ordered changes to proven farming practices. Those changes would have tragic consequences later.

Lisa See wove the lives of Pearl and May from ‘Shanghai Girls’, and the daughter, Joy, into the stories that she heard in Anhui. The character, Joy grew up in Los Angeles’s Chinatown with her mother and her aunt. She was young, naïve, trusting and believed everything that she heard from a group in college. The FBI considered that group to be Communist.

Joy thought if she was in China she would sing songs in the fields, sharing meals in the commune and everyone would be equal.  She overheard an argument between her mother and her aunt one night. It uncovered a secret about her which was one that she could not understand. Then she felt that she really didn’t belong with her aunt and mother or that she could understand them anymore. She wanted to find her birth father now that she knew that had two fathers.

Pearl to me is the universal symbol for mother, protective, always loving and caring for all children even all human kind. As you read the book, you may want to think about whom Joy ultimately symbolizes.
 
The book is easy to get into and holds your attention all the way through. The characters are well developed and some of the scenes of beauty are so intense that you need to stop and enjoy them. Also some of the scenes are so horrible that they are difficult to imagine that they are true.

What are the conditions like when people become inhuman? What caused Mao’s big experiment to fail so bad that even he admitted his failure? During the Great Leap Forward, it is not known for certain how many millions of people starved to death, were tortured and killed. Why did this experiment go wrong? Why didn’t the commune workers rebel? There are answers in this book. How could the concentration camps in Germany have happened?  Under what conditions do people become inhumane? I highly recommend this book to everyone who loves to learn about Chinese history and wants to understand some deeper questions.
---Review by Carol Wong 

MEET MY GUEST REVIEWER:
For those of you who follow my blog and other blogs, I am sure you have seen Carol's name before. Carol is retired, an avid reader, and lives in the Dallas area with her husband and two cockatiels. She has a son currently working in Chengdu, China. Her comments are delightful, inquisitive, and informational as well. I am so lucky that Carol agreed to help me out every once in a while by doing a Guest Review. It is a huge help to me and allows me to have readers see books from another viewpoint other than just mine all the time. I hope you were able to read Carol's Guest Reviews of FAITH and PLEASE LOOK AFTER MOM. If not, take time to do it...you won't be sorry AND you will be able to read more about Carol there! BIG THANKS to Carol!

GIVEAWAY

MANY THANKS TO ERIKA AND THE GREAT

FOLKS AT RANDOM HOUSE WHO HAVE GIVEN

ME FIVE ADVANCE COPIES OF DREAMS OF JOY

TO SEND OUT TO FIVE LUCKY WINNERS

--U.S. RESIDENTS ONLY
--NO P. O. BOXES
---INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS
IN CASE YOU WIN!
--ALL COMMENTS MUST BE SEPARATE TO
COUNT AS MORE THAN ONE!

HOW TO ENTER:

+1 ENTRY: COMMENT ON SOMETHING YOU FOUND INTERESTING ABOVE THAT MADE YOU WANT TO WIN DREAMS OF JOY

+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON WHAT YOU THOUGHT OF THE VIDEO IF YOU TOOK TIME TO WATCH IT - BE SURE AND MENTION SOMETHING SPECIFIC YOU LIKED OR DIDN'T LIKE

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  GIVEAWAY ENDS AT

6 PM, EST, JUNE 11